From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Sparkling Cyanide

Agatha Christie

Start date: July 1, 2021

Finish date: July 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Assorted Christies challenge.
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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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last updated Sep 25, 2025 01:00PM

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
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last updated Sep 16, 2025 12:58PM

What Members Thought

Feb 09, 2019 BrokenTune rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

Whilst we were dancing, the ghost of Rosemary hovers near George’s glass and drops in some cleverly materialized cyanide—any spirit can make cyanide out of ectoplasm. George comes back and drinks her health and—oh, Lord!’

The other two stared curiously at him.

And so am I. I did not enjoy Sparkling Cyanide anywhere near as much as other Christie books, and it is one of the very few where I believe that the tv adaptation (either of the two tv adaptations I have seen - one with Pauline Collins and O Whilst we were dancing, the ghost of Rosemary hovers near George’s glass and drops in some cleverly materialized cyanide—any spirit can make cyanide out of ectoplasm. George comes back and drinks her health and—oh, Lord!’

The other two stared curiously at him.

And so am I. I did not enjoy Sparkling Cyanide anywhere near as much as other Christie books, and it is one of the very few where I believe that the tv adaptation (either of the two tv adaptations I have seen - one with Pauline Collins and Oliver Ford Davies, and one with Anthony Andrews) were much more engaging than the book.

Of course, Sparkling Cyanide is nowhere near Christie's worst book(s) - that honour goes to Passenger to Frankfurt, hands down - but there were a number of aspects that annoyed me:

1. I was bored. This is not a great story to read if you already know who's dunnit.

2. While I liked a few of the characters - Lord and Lady Kidderminster and their daughter and son-in-law Sandra and Stephen Farraday - these characters, in the original, were just no patch on their tv versions - Clare Holman and James Wilby were excellent (!) and I could actually really care for their versions of Sandra and Stephen. Christie's book versions paled by contrast and I was a little disappointed how wooden and stilted their relationship was depicted.

3. There just seem to be way too many characters in this one. Now, this is a perception only. There probably aren't any more characters in this than there are in some of my favourite Christies - Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile or Three Act Tragedy anyone? These have lots of characters but they are very distinct from each other - and they are memorable. The characters in Sparkling Cyanide weren't. If it had not been for Hugh Fraser's lovely narration giving each of them a voice (in a manner of speaking), I would have had no feel at all for who was who.

4. The murder. The method (tho with a different element) of murder had been used before, and to my mind, in a much better way. The other story I am thinking of is one of my favourite Christies and reading this re-hash has left me seriously underwhelmed.

Sparkling Cyanide started life as a short story (The Yellow Iris) and is one of several stories that Christie revised for a longer book. In this case, it didn't work. I actually prefer the short story. ...more

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Sep 06, 2017 AngryGreyCat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie was a cleverly plotted Christie that is neither a Poirot or Miss Marple although it was originally based on a Poirot short story, Yellow Iris. Rosemary died the previous year, a presumed suicide, and now the same group, including her husband and younger sister, are together again. The husband has been receiving anonymous notes indicated that Rosemary’s death was not a suicide and he hatches a plot to uncover the truth leading to some devastating results.

The w ...more

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Apr 04, 2023 Laura Hannaway rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: readchristie2023

This was the April pick for #ReadChristie2023 and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The plot was cleverly constructed and the characters well defined. I suspected I knew who the murderer was but it still came as a surprise. The ending was incredibly clever!

Highly recommended!

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Jan 05, 2022 Charlie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, read-2022

“Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes-they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.... The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don't give a damn.”

For my second read of 2022 I went with Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie. This is the first of her novels I've read which stars Colonel Race, which is a surprise as I've read quite a few Christie novels now.

The novel in ...more

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Jun 24, 2019 Sandy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, rread-2019

A Christie that I didn't care for: unlikeable victim, the suspects weren't much better, and a really insipid heroine. Chrisite expanded it from a short story and it showed in the middle third when all was repeated for Race's benefit. ...more

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Jun 30, 2021 Sandy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, zchristie-challenge-2021, rread-2021

An interesting story that Christie liked well enough to write twice, with major differences. Colonel Race is fine lead character though without the interesting quirks of Poirot. But MI5 needs to blend into the background.

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